Appeals court throws out 1 Ressam felony conviction

A federal appeals panel has knocked down one of the nine felony convictions of Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian serving a 22-year sentence for a failed attempt to set off a bomb at Los Angeles International Airport on the eve of the millennium.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel, which was divided 2-1, was unsure whether Ressam's sentence would be affected by its decision.

As a result, the appeals court sent the case back to the trial judge, U.S. District Judge John Coughenour, to "arrive at an appropriate sentence on the remaining counts of the conviction" and elaborate how he got there.

The Tuesday decision followed the prosecutors' appeal of Coughenour's 22-year sentence as too lenient.

The prosecutors argued that the judge had abused his discretion in granting Ressam a sentence roughly one-third as long as the minimum he could have received after his conviction. He could have received 65 years to life.

Most observers now expect Coughenour will not impose a stiffer sentence.

When prosecutors appealed Coughenour's sentence last year, Ressam's attorneys challenged one of the felony counts. Tuesday's ruling was the defense team's victory.

The appeals court threw out one of the most serious convictions lodged against Ressam, involving the use of false documents while transporting explosives. It carried a mandatory sentence of 10 years.

Ressam himself had further reduced his sentence by agreeing to cooperate after his conviction. By all accounts, he provided significant information about al-Qaida and its operations after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

At that time, he agreed to a deal in which he would not serve less than 27 years.

Ressam was arrested on Dec. 14, 1999, coming across the border from Canada in a rental car packed with explosives and bomb-making materials. He later admitted that he had trained in Osama bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan and planned to detonate a huge suitcase bomb in the terminal at the L.A. airport during the millennium holiday.

After two years of cooperation, Ressam suffered a mental breakdown in prison and ceased to talk to federal agents in 2003. At sentencing, the government asked Coughenour to sentence Ressam to 35 years.

Instead, the judge angered prosecutors and federal agents during Ressam's sentencing by criticizing the Bush administration's practice of holding some terrorism suspects without trial as "enemy combatants" and preparing to try others in secret military tribunals.

He pointed to the Ressam prosecution as a victory in the war on terrorism, and imposed the 22-year sentence.

In November, Ressam sent a letter in Arabic to Coughenour recanting his testimony against another Algerian being held at a U.S. detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and said that he had lost faith in his attorneys and didn't trust them anymore.

Ressam's public defender Thomas Hillier had brushed off Ressam's criticism. Hillier said Tuesday, "We're glad the appeal went our way."

The one count set aside by the 9th Circuit Court involved Ressam's conviction for carrying an explosive while he filled out a false customs declaration — a felony.

Two appeals judges ruled that there was no evidence to show that the explosives "facilitated or played a role in the crime" of lying on the customs form. Therefore, they concluded that Ressam was not guilty of that crime.

In a minority opinion, Judge Arthur Alarcon said that Ressam should be convicted on all nine counts. He also agreed with prosecutors that the sentence was too light, calling it an "unreasonable and extreme departure" from federal guidelines for sentencing.

The Justice Department is now reviewing the appeals-court ruling and could seek a review of the decision by all 15 members of the federal appeals court, said Emily Langlie, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle.

Ressam is now serving his time in a Colorado federal prison. If the 9th Circuit decision holds, then Ressam could return to Seattle sometime later this year for another sentencing hearing.

Hal Bernton: 206-464-2581 or hbernton@seattletimes.com and Mike Carter: 206-464-3706 or mcarter@seattletimes.com